Tiger Lily, Water Lily
by the Transcendancer
Summary: Lily and James are best friends, but there's something else beneath...
1. MAGIC?

Hiya! I said I'd do a better L/J, so here goes! This starts out before they're even at Hogwarts, but I will use my friend Mr. Fast Forward later on. This is interspersed with 'flash forwards' to see parralels between Hermione and Lily.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone but: Rose, Stella (lily's mom), Luna, and Artemis  
  
*~*~*~*  
Real Magic  
  
A/N: The front door of the Evans house opens right into the living room.  
  
Hoofbeats. Rose Evans, 11 years old, looked up from her book, Squire by Tamora Pierce. She must've read it ten times already, but she was still annoyed at being interuppted. She heard the hoofbeats slow down, then stop. Rose reluctantly dog-eared the page and put in down on the couch. She heaved herself to her feet just as the front door opened. There was Rose's twin sister, Lily. Her long red hair was frizzy and had just caught the gold sunlight. Dust was still settling on her chaps, accenting her thin figure. Rose made a deep contrast: Her straight red hair was cut just under her earlobes, and she was more heavyset than the light, almost frail-looking Lily.  
  
"Read this." Lily handed a letter to Rose, her face a mask of disbelief. Rose looked at her name and address in emerald green ink, the same color as her and her sister's eyes.   
  
"Funny paper." It wasn't the crisp white of usual envelopes, more a sort of... parchment.  
  
"Open it." Lily was wriggling out of her chaps. It was summer vacation, and both girls liked to go horse-riding in the large fields and gardens behind the house. They also picked up the mail, which was at the end of a really long driveway.  
  
Rose opened the envelope. She unfolded the two sheets of paper, and read the first one.  
  
"Dear Miss Evans, you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy?" Rose ended on a disbelieving tone. "You have got to be kidding me, Lil."  
  
"Am not. I got one too." She handed over her letter. "And look at the sheet under that."  
  
"A list of supplies." Rose scanned the list. "A magic wand?"  
  
"Yeah. Crazy, huh?" Lily sat down on the couch.  
  
"This has got to be some kind of prank." She looked at the green writing on the envelope again. "Who would send such a stupid thing? Look at the name of this school: Hogwarts. It's so dumb it obviously phony."  
  
"I know, it's so weird. And how did they find our address? We should show it to Mom when she gets back."  
  
"Yeah." Rose bundled the letters up and put them on the coffee table. "You interrupted my reading. I just got to the part when Kel was jousting against Lord Wyldon." She picked up Squire and started to read again.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
Stella Evans turned the parchment sheets over in her hands. Lily and Rose stood close by, knowing it was unusual for their mom to be so quiet.  
  
"What's up?" Rose asked.  
  
"Four years ago, Petunia got just such a letter. We discarded it, of course, saying it was all pranks and such. Then my sister called."  
  
Lily knew this was serious. Her mother hated to talk about her twin sister, Luna Black. Luna had been everything Stella was not: loud, rebellious, and reckless. When she was younger, she had gone away to a special boarding school, which Stella was glad for. It meant she would only see her sister in the summer. Then Luna had gone off and married her cousin, and Stella never spoke another word about her. Something had to be up.  
  
"She wanted to know why Petunia hadn't gone to the school. Her daughter was having a good time there." Stella tossed the papers on the table. "Yes, Hogwarts school exists. Now I think about it, that was the name of the school Luna disappeared to every year." She looked at her daughters, and smiled. "I don't think ill of this school. It would be wonderful to have witches in the family. It just reminds me of Luna." She made a face, looking at the list of school supplies. "I'll probably even have to see her again. She would be the only one to know where we can find this stuff." She pinned her daughters with a glance. "That is, if you want to go."  
  
"I do," Rose surprised herself by saying. "It sounds cool. It'd be awesome to be able to do magic. Lily?"  
  
Lily looked entranced. "Magic? You mean... like... Alanna-magic... and... MAGIC?" She smiled. "I'd love to!"  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
"Magic." Lily bounced on the bottom bunk of their bunk bed. "Real magic! This is going to be so much fun."  
  
"And maybe we can get an owl! That would be awesome." Rose sat on her top bunk and stared at the ceiling. "Think of the possiblities." They both sat in silence. Then Lily turned off the light.  
  
"I'll never get any sleep if I keep thinking about it. G'night, Rose."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Good night, Hermione. Sweet dreams." Her mother closed the door.  
  
Hermione lay on her bed, not sleeping at all. *This is so surreal,* she thought. *It's like something right out of a fantasy book.* She turned on her other side. *And Arachne had known about magic the whole time?* It was going to be a blast going to boarding school with her best friend. There were so many questions that she wanted to ask...  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"G'night Lily." No matter how hard Rose tried, she couldn't calm her mind enough to sleep. Eventually, she fell into a frenzied half-sleep, full of people with magic wands and green eyes turning into various animals and back, then blasting things with wands. Didn't they say something about broomsticks? Do they really fly on them? Cool.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
I finally did it! I'll have the next chapter up soon, believe me it gets better! And, of course, there's still Rose! Mwahaha. Review, please! I live for reviews. Oh, and drawing. And Tamora Pierce books. And...  
  
liacoraginger@yahoo.com  
http://www.geocities.com/liacoraginger  
Why do I even bother? Please visit it anyway, though! Especially for the Picture Maker, I can draw your character! I'll have the HP fanfiction up once my other compu starts working. 


	2. Diagonally

I'm back in the groove! Woo-hoo! I needed that break, tho. Anyway, read!  
  
To make things easier for me, I'm going to pretend that this story is going on right now, for movie and music purposes. After all, it could, because they never mention a year in the real books. And anyway, this is fanfiction. And because I feel like it, Hermione listens to the same music, and lets say life hasn't changed much! Or something like that.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Ding, dong.  
  
"I'll get it!" "No, I will" "Ow, stop pushing!" "Haha, you lose!"  
  
Lily opened the front door to three strange people she hadn't seen before. In the middle, there was a tall woman with long black hair and strange dark eyes that looked purple in the sunlight. The girl on her left, who was about 15 years old, had thick black hair that was considerably lighter than (Lily assumed) her mothers. The girl had a very bored look on her face, although her light blue eyes were flashing daggers at the boy on the woman's other side. He had black hair, also, but his eyes were truly black.  
  
"Rose, or is it Lily?" Oh, duh, thought Lily. These must be my aunt and cousins. They were coming to take shopping for our school stuff.  
  
"I'm Lily. This here is Rose." She gestured to Rose, who was standing behind her. "Um, do you want to come in, or something?"  
  
"No, I don't think your mother would like it very much. We... aren't close."  
  
"I see. Well, maybe you could wait a minute while we gather up our stuff..."  
  
"We'll be right here." The woman nodded politely as Lily shut the door.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Hermiiiiiiiiiiiiione!" Hermione's best friend called from her doorstep. "C'mon, let's go shopping!"  
  
Hermione ran down the stairs and out the door. Arachne grabbed her arm and pulled her down the street. "Arachne, are you trying to get us run over? Stop!!!" Arachne grinned.  
  
"Up, up, and away, haha!" She grinned but stopped yanking on Hermione's elbow.  
  
"So... where exactly are we going to get our stuff?"  
  
"Diagon Alley!"  
  
"Diagonally... whaat?"  
  
"Never mind. We're taking the train into London. Then from there... " she shrugged. "Let's go!" And she took off again.   
  
Hermione shook her head. She loved Arachne to death but she could be... overexurberant at times.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Rose was surprised that the Blacks had a car. They were, after all, a wizarding family, weren't they? Didn't they ride, like, magic carpets or something-or-other?  
  
"Flying carpets were banned years ago. They still use them in the East, but it sort of a tradition there." Luna, as they'd been intructed to call her ("Stop calling me Aunt. Just Luna. Aunt makes me feel old.), was drumming her fingers on the steering wheel and humming tunelessly.  
  
Rose realized that they were at the front of a long line of cars at the stoplight, when just a minute ago they had been at the back. I should've known, she thought.  
  
"Mom," said Sirius, the boy next to Lily, "Can you please turn on the radio?"   
  
"I don't mind," said Lily.  
  
Luna just pressed the button and kept on humming.  
  
"... And this is WWN, the one and only Wizarding Wireless Network. Coming up..."  
  
"Mom," said Artemis, the girl in front. "Can we not play WWN? We've been listening to the same stuff all morning. Can we play the CD instead?"  
  
"Sirius?"  
  
"Hmmm? Oh, I don't care."  
  
She put on the CD player.  
  
"... didn't know that, you were so cold and, you needed someone to show you the way..."  
  
"I love this song!" exclaimed Lily.  
  
Rose sighed inwardly. Not that Lily was bad at singing, in fact she was great, but she had heard this song soooo many times...  
  
"... when the time comes I'll take you away..." Now Artemis joined her. They actually sang very well together.  
  
"If you want to, I can save you, I can take you away from here... So lonely inside, so busy out there, and all you wanted was somebody who cares..."  
  
Rose caught Sirius' eye, and rolled her eyes, cocking her head at Lily.  
  
"... your hand is all I have to keep me hanging on..."  
  
Sirius shugged, and joined in the chorus. Rose shook her head and sang as well. They all let Lily do the little 'diva' variations.  
  
"...Ohh woahhhh..."  
  
"... all you wanted..."  
  
"... where you're going you're gone."  
  
"It's on shuffle," Artemis remarked.  
  
"She's his yellow brick road..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"...walking fast, faces pass and I'm homebound..." Hermione was listening to her portable CD player. They were on the train on thier way into London. Hermione had onyl been there a few times... she had been to France more. Well, she had relatives in France. She could even speak French. That was cool, because Arachne could speak French too, and no one else at their old school could. It was fun.  
  
"...just making my way, making a way through the crowd..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"... leading him on, and let him go as far as she lets him go..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"... and I need you... and I miss you... and now I wonder..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"... In my mind everything we did was right, open you eyes I'll still be by your side..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"...If I could fall into the sky, do you think time would pass me by..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"... how could I ever have been so blind? You give me something to sleep to at night."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"... cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles if I could just see you tonight."  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
"Hi mum."  
  
"Hello mum 2." Hermione knew Arachne's mom so well she was, really, a second mother to her. She had always liked her a little better than her real mom. Morgana Wynn Malakov was certainly a lot more interesting than Sarah Granger.   
  
Currently, 'Mum 2' was having a drink with the bartender. He seemed very excited about something.  
  
"Really?" Morgana sounded soooo thrilled. "Well, that's amazing. I wish I was there. But I have to go get my daughter's school things. It was nice talking with you." She got up from the little table and herded the two kids out the back very quickly.  
  
"What was that all about?" Arachne wanted to know.  
  
"Turns out that Harry Potter was here just a week ago."  
  
"Harry Potter! As in, THE Harry Potter?" Hermione didn't have a clue what they were talking about.  
  
"Yes, him. Well, I was certainly interested at first, but hearing about it for a few hours is enough to make anyone sick."  
  
"Is he going to be in our year?"  
  
"Seems so."  
  
Arachne squealed. Hermione rolled her eyes. Arachne could get way too hyper sometimes.   
  
She was too busy quieting Arachne down to notice what Morgana did, but when she stepped back there was an archway leading to...  
  
"Diagon Alley."  
  
Hermione gaped. Her eyes darted all over the scene, too overcome to notice one particular thing. She was overpowered. She had only felt this once before, that was when they had first gone to a marketplace in France. She must've been... what, six?   
  
"Wow."  
  
Arachne took Hermione by the arm and dragged her through the arch. Hermione let her. She was too busy looking around. Morgana came up behind the two eleven-year-olds. "Well, to Gringotts!"  
  
This was the first time Hermione had ever freaked in her life.  
  
Unfortunately, it would not be her last.  
  
"OH MY GAWD!!!! THIS IS SOOOOO COOL! WE GET ALL SORTS OF CUTE THINGS!!!!! Oh, look, the hats are pointy.... EEEEEEE this is soooo awesome... I'm going to learn MAGIC! WOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!"  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Hehe. Hermione flipped. Haha, that's fun. I think that's why she was so calm and cool about it later: She's had enough of a freak-out before.  
  
I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Especially all the songs... Credit to Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton. PLEASE PLEASE review!   
  
Thanks to all my reviewers! Here y'all are:  
  
Erin Potter - Just for you!  
Emili Potter - Woah, two Potters. Cool.  
Peppermint - I agree, Cleon should just fall off a cliff and die...  
Ginny - They both got letters. Also, as I explained in the beginning of this chapter, it doesn't say what year it's in, so...  
The Golden Snitch - Thanx!  
Princess Cora - Wonder who this could be...  
Maria Magdalena - Yeah Squire is a real book... it's awesome!!  
Lady Louisa - So do I!  
woofyness - Next part! Yay!  
heart2heart - Hey Sammy! Wazzup! Did you actually read this? wow...  
  
liacoraginger@yahoo.com  
http://www.geocities.com/liacoraginger 


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